Beyond Doubt
by LilsNightlock
Summary: There was no way that Tomoyo and Sunohara could ever be together. Right? There was no way that Tomoyo would ever fall in love with that ignorant delinquent. She didn't like him at all. It would be unlikely, but... what if she was wrong? TomoyoxSunohara.


"Meeting dismissed."

Tomoyo Sakagami slumped down into her chair and tiredly removed her glasses as the school council members neatly filed out of the meeting room. Being school council President was more exhausting than she had expected, even if it wasn't any less rewarding. The meetings, which had at first seemed to fly by in a blur, now seemed difficult and dragged on for an eternity.

Just today she had had to deal with a heated debate between two different sides of the school council because they couldn't decide on the solution to a very easy problem. Tomoyo had watched, grinding her teeth, as they argued over whether or not to allow club activities to continue after school without an advisor. The simple answer was yes, of course, if the advisor had appointed a reliable team manager, but half of the school council had been making pointless and irrelevant arguments towards it. Tomoyo sighed and put a hand to her head as she felt a headache coming on.

"Hey there."

The slightly too-high-pitched voice came from across the room just as she began to close her eyes. Tomoyo hadn't thought that the day could get any worse, but apparently now it could. She let out a huff of frustration and stood up. "Sunohara... what do you want?"

"Oh, nothing really," replied Sunohara, flicking his bleached-blonde hair slightly and looking towards the window. "I just came by and saw you in here, so I thought I'd say hello." he lowered his hand and looked over at her, raising his eyebrows. "Something wrong with that, huh?"

Tomoyo sighed. Of course there was nothing wrong with it; she just didn't like him. "I guess not. But right now I would prefer to be alone, Sunohara. So would you mind leaving?"

She groaned inwardly as Sunohara, instead of leaving, turned to walk into the classroom with his hands in his pockets. "Are you okay, Tomoyo?" he asked,with what Tomoyo thought might have been a flicker of actual sincerity in his tone. "School council too much work for you?" he added with a smirk. Well, there went the sincerity.

But Tomoyo knew he was right - the school council really was too much work for her, although she didn't want to admit it. "No, Sunohara. If you don't leave, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to hurt you. I don't want to do that, particularly, so I think you should leave now."

"I could help you blow off some steam if you want."

"No."

"We could go into town?"

"No. Sunohara, would you please just-?"

"We can get something to eat and drink. Come on, Tomoyo, give me a chance. Come with me. I bet you'll feel better afterwards."

Sunohara looked at Tomoyo expectantly, and she looked back into his deep blue eyes. A sudden thought flickered across her mind - those eyes really were quite beautiful. She dismissed the thought swiftly, ridding her head of any thoughts of affection for him; Sunohara was _definitely_ someone she didn't want to get romantically involved with. However... Tomoyo rubbed her forehead. It wouldn't hurt to go with him just this once, right? She needed some time off anyway.

"Alright, fine. But don't try any funny stuff, okay? And we'll make this quick."

"Haha!" Exclaimed Sunohara excitedly. "Yes!"

"Sunohara..."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Let's go."

They walked together to the front gates of the school and swiftly down into the town. For the most part, Tomoyo kept her head down. It was only after she had gotten out of the front gates that she realised it was probably a bad idea to be seen with the school's biggest delinquent out in public. If Nagisa could do it, then so could she, right? But Tomoya had improved his act greatly since the beginning of the year, whereas Sunohara hadn't. Tomoyo kicked herself mentally for agreeing and debated ditching him. She came to the conclusion that that would be too mean; Sunohara hadn't tried anything yet or done anything wrong.

Gradually Tomoyo settled into a slight sense of security and relaxed a little. By the time they were into the town, she had managed to almost completely feel at ease with being out with Sunohara. She could just make up a story anyway, if anybody from school happened to see them.

"S-so Tomoyo, where do you want to go?" asked Sunohara suddenly. Tomoyo looked up at him in surprise. He seemed... different. Jumpy and nervous rather than eccentric and confident for a change. He was walking strangely stiffly and looking straight ahead, which also seemed unnatural for Sunohara. Tomoyo narrowed her eyes at him and then looked around a little.

"We could go to that coffee shop that you and Tomoya took me to quite a while ago, I suppose," she replied, and then hastily added, "Just... let's skip around the town instead of going through the place we did last time... I really didn't like that, you know."

"S-sure!" Sunohara responded quickly. He took a brief glance down at the beautiful Tomoyo and grinned to himself; he was out, in town, with a beautiful girl like her, and she wasn't kicking him into oblivion. It was at that moment that Sunohara realised he actually really liked Tomoyo. She wasn't just a one-off girl that he could go on a date with and then drop immediately afterwards. There had to be some way to make her feel the same.

They arrived at the coffee shop a short while later and sat down to order. Tomoyo thought Sunohara looked very fidgety and distracted as they waited for their drinks to come back. _There must be something wrong with him, _she thought. _He's acting so weirdly._

"So, Sunohara," said Tomoyo awkwardly, breaking the silence. "How are you these days?"

"M-me?" replied Sunohara. Tomoyo narrowed her eyes at him once more, thinking about how strange he was being. "I'm, uh... I'm fine... trying to come to school a bit more, since I want to be a model and all... um, how about you, Tomoyo?"

"Well, you were right. The school council is far more tiring and difficult that I anticipated," responded Tomoyo hesitantly, still not quite trusting Sunohara. "And... I guess that's about it."

Their conversation slowly began to perk up a little, and by the time they had finished their drinks Tomoyo had lost her edginess and Sunohara had become more comfortable with talking to her and being with her. He politely paid for both of their drinks and they began walking back to their houses.

"Tomoyo... do you want me to walk you home?"

Tomoyo thought for a moment. She usually went home alone... but maybe, just once, it would be nice to have somebody with her.

"Alright. I guess that would be okay," she accepted.

For a short while, they walked in silence, but all Tomoyo could think of was how nice it was to walk with someone and how kind Sunohara could actually be. She jumped as their fingers brushed together and a crackle of static electricity flickered between them.

Sunohara glanced over at Tomoyo and hesitantly reached out his hand so that their fingers touched once more, expecting her to pull them away or kick him halfway down the street. However, she looked up at him sharply without removing her hand. Sunohara cast his eyes guiltily to the floor and began to pull his own hand away, but to his surprise Tomoyo's fingers closed around his own.

"No... please don't." said Tomoyo. "I... don't mind staying like this."

Sunohara looked up at her unreadable face and grinned. "For real?" he asked eagerly. Tomoyo gave him a slight nod and slipped her hand into his.

They continued to walk down the street, the delinquent and the President, hand in hand.

A tiny thought flickered in the back of Tomoyo's mind.

Maybe it _wasn't_ definite that she and Sunohara could never love each other.


End file.
